https://ofeng.org/tags/workflow/ Recent content in Workflow on Feng's Notes Hugo en Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0100 https://ofeng.org/posts/designing-hitl-agent-workflow/ Wed, 08 Jul 2026 09:00:00 +0100 https://ofeng.org/posts/designing-hitl-agent-workflow/ <p>You have been asked to build an agent workflow that can pause before a sensitive action, wait for a human decision, and then continue safely.</p> <p>At first glance, the flow looks simple:</p> <div class="highlight"><pre tabindex="0" style="color:#f8f8f2;background-color:#272822;-moz-tab-size:4;-o-tab-size:4;tab-size:4;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;"><code class="language-text" data-lang="text"><span style="display:flex;"><span>agent proposes an action </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ human reviews it </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ approve, edit, reject, or request revision </span></span><span style="display:flex;"><span>→ workflow continues </span></span></code></pre></div><p>The backend challenge is making that flow durable.</p> <p>A review may take hours or days. Services may restart. New code may be deployed while the workflow is waiting. The same approval may be submitted twice. The external action may succeed even if the worker times out.</p>